New Airbnb law in Ireland to impact professional landlords

The Irish Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy, confirmed last week that under new laws home sharing on platforms such as Airbnb will only be allowed where it is a person’s primary residence.

Homesharing is classified as when a person rents out a part of, or all of, their own home for a period of time, usually to tourists who are visiting the country. It can often help homeowners meet their day-to-day bills or contribute towards their holiday when they are away, for example.

However, as home sharing has become more popular as a form of tourism letting, it has resulted in some professional landlords withdrawing houses and apartments that would normally be rented on a long-term basis to instead rent them out as short-term lets, the Department of Housing has said.

And as Ireland is currently in the midst of a deepening housing and homeless crisis, the Department has announced plans to implement new short-term let regulations, to help bring properties back onto the market.

The new short-term let regulations will start on 1 June 2019 and will operate on a ‘one host, one home’ model in areas of the country where there is deemed to be a high housing demand. This basically means that landlords, or even homeowners who currently let a second property on a short-term basis, will no longer be allowed to do so. In addition, an annual cap of 90 days will apply for the renting out of a home and homeowners can only rent out their homes for 14 days or less at a time.